Team America: World Police (Uncensored and Unrated)

Does this DVD come with strings attached?

Over the years, Trey Parker and Matt Stone have evolved into brilliantly brutal satirists of current events, expressing their contempt for hypocrites and the politically correct of all stripes through the vehicle of South Park. Its spare (and automated) animation style has allowed for instant turnaround of some astonishingly ripped-from-the-headlines episodes such as the recent episode that skewered both the Sony PSP and both sides of the Terri Schiavo case while both stories were still on the front pages.For their latest feature, Team America: World Police, they made a bold decision to use an animation form that was as dead as disco - marionettes (think: the old Thunderbirds show) - and kicked out yet another hunk of lacerating commentary as they tackled more than just the War on Terror and Hollywood celebrities who cuddle up to tyrannical foreign dictators. They also went after the men responsible for some of the most deplorable crimes against humanity in recent history: Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer, the director and producer of cinematic war crimes like Pearl Harbor and Armageddon.OK, that's a bit of hyperbole, but when you're dealing with a movie that initially pulled an NC-17 rating because of genital-free puppet sex, then you know a placid discussion of the socio-political ramifications of the aforementioned intercourse is going to be drowned out underneath the roaring power chords of the film's stirring anthem, the modestly-titled "America, [Heck] Yeah!!!" So be it!

If we were to show you anything else from this scene, it would be my last review.

As implied by the title, Team America is the police force for the world, leaping in to save the day (with a hefty side order of collateral damage) wherever trouble may be found. After the opening action sequence lays waste to Paris and claims one of the members of the team, TA boss Spottswoode (voiced by Daran Norris) recruits Broadway actor Gary (Trey Parker), currently starring in the musical Lease, to bring his acting and language skills to Team America.After the receiving the worst disguise ever - it actually includes a towel on his head - Gary goes undercover in Cairo to locate WMDs and after the requisite mayhem, we discover that the true mastermind of the global terrorism plot is professional North Korean dictator and amateur Yoko Ono impersonator, Kim Jong Il (Parker again, sounding like the City Wok owner on South Park). Kim is portrayed as a James Bond-esque villain, disposing of UN weapons inspector Hans Blix (Parker denying yet another actor a gig) by dropping him into a shark tank.

Yeah, right. Like Michael Moore would blow himself up before finishing that slice.

Adding another angle to the satire is the inclusion of the Film Actors Guild - we'll pause while you figure out what the initials spell out - led by Alec Baldwin (Maurice LaMarche), who believes that Team America is composed of reckless bullies. Baldwin and his cohorts travel to North Korea to provide moral support and firepower to Kim even as the evil dictator plots to blow up the world and reduce everyone to his country's impoverished level.While much was made of the film's topicality and a misperceived conservative political bent due to its release a few weeks ahead of the 2004 elections - a perception enhanced by the notoriously humorless Sean Penn issuing an angry statement attacking Matt and Trey's comments around the film's release that uninformed people shouldn't vote (who knew that Jeff Spicoli would grow up to be such a buzzkill?) - the largest sacred cow punched out is the big-budget formula action movie.

You guys better not be eating Junior Mints!

In overtly and subtly mimicking the clichés and structure of the typical Bay/Bruckheimer brain cell killer, Matt and Trey proceed to hobble the pace of their movie and make it as bad as a Bay/Bruckheimer movie. We have sappy moments to provide some boredom in between the spectacular set pieces. While imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, it also means that whatever negatives exist in your source material will transfer to your spoof as well.This focus on the ridiculous boilerplate of action films - the training montage, etc. - distracts from the most stinging and hilarious parts: the spot-on lampooning of the typical Hollywood "radical chic" attitudes and ineffectual international politics. Since the most effective satire wraps its jokes around sizeable hunks of truth - the more it hurts, the more it works - you'll laugh at the statements of these actors because they aren't totally unfamiliar.

I wanted to eat someplace that took reservations, but noooooooooooooo! You had to come to the hot, new restaurant on a Friday night!